The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-01-08

throughout the Christian world i.
so universal that a greater degree
of interest is attached to the vari
Gus modes of its celebration thar
nppertains to any other period o.
national or religious commemora
ton. According to William Perry
Brown, in the current number Of
the Brooklyn Magazine, through.
out the mountain region Of Ten
nessee, Georgia and the Carolinas
there is no acception to the custom
though the manner of conforming
to it-cspecially in the wilder and
more secluded parts-is as unique
as it is primitive and superstitious.
Usually the first visible symptom
of the approach of Christmas is
the hanging of huge limbs of noun
tain holly over house and "meet-
ing house" doors a week of so be-
fore its arrival. Often the rough
rock fireplace of the log cabin will
be wreathed by the women with
smaller branches, all bristling with
prickly, bright green leaves and
red berries.
On Christmas eve you are liable
to be awakened by an unceremoni-
Gus discharge of about all the fire.
arms in the neighborhood. To
further test your nerves, a clatter-
ing of pans, a blast of hunting
horns, and a chorus of revived rebel
yells will ensue, while the guns are
being reloaded. 1t is then consid-
cred etiquette on your part to invite
the hull passel on 'em" into your
cabin for treat. Should you set
out jug of corn whisky, clear as
water, fresh from some mountain
still, and entirely innocent of any
accountability to the " Revenoo's," !"
you have clearly established your
claim to be let alone by the serry-
naders " for the rest of that night.
A refusal to treat will convert your
premises into a pandemonium of
bowling fends, until the lungs and
ammunition Of the party or your
own resolution give out.
The leaders will often wrap them
selves in deer and bearskins, with the
staring heads of those animals nod
ding at you in lieu of their own.
Sometimes a bulls head with
spreading horns mingles with these
wilder denizens of the woods. The
more complete and hideous the
disguise, the more impudent be-
come the antics of the owner of it.
Others will black their faces or
wear rude, homemade masks.
They also wrap themselves in rag
ged quilts, or turn their garments
inside out, always striving to be as
grotesque and horrible as possible.
have never heard of Christmas
trees in these mountains, yet Santa
Claus is often typified by paterfam-
ilias and others as old Man Bear, f"
who shambles in by the door. about
midnight, and deposits under the
bed of each sleeper the gifts intend
ed for the youngsters lying thereon.
Then "Old Man Bear" executes a
kind of war dance around the beds,
growls menacingly and shambles
out. Every mothers child is wide
awake and expectant, yet the pres
ents must lie undisturbed upon
the beds until morning. The tam
talized condition of the juvenile
mind for the rest of the night can
be easily imagined.
Such presents, too, as parental
inventiveness will evolve under a
heartrendering scarcity of lucre !!
Nickle boxes of snuff, fantastic
twists Of homemade tobacco,
"larses cakes" curiously modelled,
baby rattles, strings of glaring
glass beads, blow guns of Indian
reed, black stone Indian pipes,
cheap and faring fincry, made up
mostly at home, and medicums OF
striped stick candy.
1t is fashionable here to paper
the hewed log walls of the house
with old newspapers. The little
"meetin' house" is not unfrequent-
ly thus adorned, SO that one, when
wearied with over much pulpit ex-
hortation, can read old news on
the walls without scandalizing
other worshippcrs. Before Christ
mas old papers saved during the
year are brought out and plastered
up, and huge back logs of beach and
oak cut for the Christmas fires.
On Christmas morning the men
will 20 on deer or bear drives }"
with dogs and hunting horns, re-
turning fiercely hungry toward
night, to a big dinner over which
the women have been toiling mean
while. Whisky circulates freely,
being carried about by the children
in " "simlin' gourds" to their elders
and as night approaches the mlrth
and uproar grow fast and furious.
The women take their drams with
each other. and lose their usual
ticiturnity in public in a shrill,
falsetto volubility. that reaches its
climax during the " dancin'," which